Tag: Apple

Being born in the crux of the 1980’s – December of 1984, to be precise – places me in the precarious position where I remember life before the internet, but have all the benefits of life in the post-technological boom era. I’ve seen televisions get slimmer and longer, watched as phones lost their umbilical cords, observed the evolution of VHS as it forayed into Super VHS, Laser Disks, and then eventually to DVD, Ultra HD, Blu Ray and now 4K; my Sony walkman was upgraded to a disc player, then an mp3 player, an iPod and now I can basically play music from my refrigerator. And then, last but most certainly not least: the cell phone. What was at one point an electronic brick that had the basic operations of a fancy calculator, has eventually evolved into an electronic ‘blob’ that’s acquired all the functions of literally anything else you could keep in your office or wallet besides your ID card, like calendars, notepads, a Rolodex, books, your credit cards, maps, DSLR cameras, video games, movies, foreign language dictionaries….the list could go on and on.

When the intellectual power of the world can fit in the palm of your hand, it sounds almost anachronistic to think that there’s a phone application out there whose only goal is to get you off your phone, and back into the moment – but thankfully, there is – and let me tell you, it works. But let’s take a step back for a second and understand what leads to people being stuck on their phones.

For the most part, your cell phone is like the fridge: you open your cell phone in the morning because your brain is hungry for information, and your phone puts it at the ends of your fingertips. Drowsy from strange dreams and famished for facts, you eagerly ingest anything your phone gives you – only it’s the fast food of information, not a lot of substance, and definitely not filling. So, every hour or so, you open it – hoping there’s new food there, forgetting it’s the same fridge you ate from earlier – same shit, new timestamp.

Not to throw myself under the digital bus, but out of all my friends – I’d say I’m the most addicted to my phone. I’m sure it’s somewhere in my genes, but my parents and grandparents have been large influences in the terms of technological revolution, so I’m not surprised that I had an affliction for information, and a hearty addiction to my phone. My personal irony, is I first found out about moment through a friend’s

Instagram story, where they’d posted screen shots of how much time they used to spend on their phone versus how much time they spend after using the application; I was sold, immediately.

Moment, created by Kevin Holesh, is a saucy little minx; silently and invisibly running in the back of your phone, unless you ask for alerts, that is.. You feed it screen shots of your application use, and it lets you know how you’re fairing by cataloging your total use, including use by specific applications.

After observing myself for a few days, I decided to enlist in the free 7 day boot camp, Bored & Brilliant, which is a great introduction into getting off your phone and back to reality; shortly after I bit the bullet and got the Pro version, and did the 14 day boot camp. I’ll be honest, I’m actually on my second iteration of it because I really need the practice of leaving my phone alone. The boot camps walk you through 21 essential tasks that will curb your enthusiasm for your digital reality and replace it with tangible moments, from not taking your phone into the bathroom, to cleaning up your home screen to remove all social apps, turning off your notifications and actually calling the people you love. Through the app, I have small reminders on my phone to let me know, in 20 minute intervals, how long I’ve spent and I’m a huge fan of their ‘No Screen Time’ alarm: I set mine for 7-9pm at night, and it literally annoys me into putting my phone face down with a loud reminder every time I engage it.

When I started using the application, I was on my phone up to three hours a day – now, it’s rare if I break an hour. Plus, over the last three weeks, I’ve gone to sleep earlier, woken up without anxiety, spent more time with my cats, finished more books, had more fun conversations with friends, shared my time with my husband and have been overall immensely happier than before. I’ve not only recommended the application to all my friends, but I’ve gone as far as downloading it on both my dad and Danny’s phones.

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Unless you’ve masterfully been dipping and dodging digital rocks for the last week, then you’re aware that there’s been a new update to the Apple iOS and this time, they’re shaking things up. The opening bugs from the new system have been zapped, and the risk of owning an expensive brick have diminished exponentially so I think it’s safe for everyone to get on the train. As of today, almost a third of prior users have done the damn thing and upgraded their devices. However, before you climb aboard – it’s helpful to understand what changes you’re getting yourself into.

As a somewhat recent iPhone convert (RIP my beautiful Android and my addition to all things LG), there are some features that I feel I’m still getting used to on the iPhone; other times, it’s as if Apple is taking more and more from Camp Android, and the latest update is absolutely no exception. With the iOS 10 update there’s a handful of both ergonomic changes and functional changes, not to mention a new color to add to your collection. If you have an iPhone6 or earlier, you’ll unfortunately be missing out on a few of the clutch components that iOS 10 has to offer – primarily anything to do with 3D sensors and touch screen, especially as more companies jump in on the fun. An inconvenient technological ploy to get you to upgrade? Potentially. But – will it work? Definitely.

There’s No Place Like Home

Of all the changes to get used to, using the Home Button to unlock the phone might be the largest. For the last few years, we’ve all been swiping like it’s hot, so for me – I have a good amount of unlearning to do. This is the most intuitive changes that Apple has made to the iPhone in a few iterations, but it’s also proving to be the most difficult to get over.

Lift Up to Light Up

No longer do we have to live in an age of button pressing on your phone to catch up on your notifications or the time. Now, all you have to do is simply raise your phone to wake it up. For those of you that are weary of someone else picking up your phone and being able to read the notifications, don’t you fret – there are ways to edit what’s seen.

Swipe to Snap

Seems like Apple finally realized what everyone wants immediately when they reach for their phone, the time, the notifications – and a way to take a quick pic. Thank goodness one of the two swipe screens is for the Camera. The other side screen is your widgets – instead of being a pull down screen from the top, they’re now a lot more accessible.

Let Bedtime Put You to Sleep

Maybe it’s a symptom of not wanting to completely be an adult yet, but the idea of a ‘bedtime’ is terrifying – and even more so for my fiance whenever I mention having one. Thanks to the update from Apple, now I can actually set a bedtime reminder – just in case I’m busy marathoning Mr. Robot and Penny Dreadful and think I’ll have no problem going on 3 hours of sleep the next day (note to self, you’re 31 going on 32, not 23 going on 13…)

Make Messages Personal

For all those times you’d rather send a handwritten something than a barrage of bitcode, this update is for you. Next time you’re in your messages, turn the screen into landscape mode to put your words into your own handwriting. If you’re feeling funny – add a GIF straight from Bing’s search schematics; if you’re feeling flirty – try sending a message with invisible ink.

These are just my fivefavorite updates, but there are plenty more: edit your live photos, delete root applications like Stocks, utilize the new and improved search tool, play around with Siri now that she’s been linked up to more applications, transcribe voicemails, collaborate on notes, adjust the brightness on the flashlight or use ‘Moments’ to create little slideshows of your recent memories.

What are your favorite updates inside the new iOS? Let me know in the comments below!

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If a picture can speak a thousand words, then over the past few years Instagram has become an anthology of the modern personality. From adorable pictures of animals to decadent, delicious meals, the latest and greatest in fashion and music and let’s not forget the exponential amount of selfies, Instagram has made a monumental name for itself in the world of smart phone applications; doubly so once they were acquired by Facebook.As the iPhone upgraded it’s photo and video services, the application paralleled in kind – offering up Hyperlapse as a keen alternative to the iOS’s native time lapse video recording services. Back when it was rolled out, this was incredibly important since any iPhone TimeLapse would invariably be converted to a real time video once it was loaded into Instagram.

I don’t know about you guys, but between cats and concerts – I happen to use a ton of collages, there a wonderful way to wrap up a weekend, pay your respects to a group of friends or simply embarrass just one on their birthday; and let me tell you, there are a ridiculous amount of applications that simply aren’t as seamless. Just off the top of my head, there’s PicStitch, PicCollage, InstaCollage and my typical go-to PhotoGrid. I’m a huge fan of the PhotoGrid because unlike the others it doesn’t have an irritating watermark, you can pick your pictures before your layout, there’s tons of structured – and free form – grids to choose from and you can adjust the color of the grid itself, using any pigmentation you want – even another image. In all honesty, it was only a matter of time before Instagram reached out and adjusted for the needs of their market.

For anyone who’s been perusing their iOS App Store as of late, Instagram has added a third application to their photography arsenal just yesterday morning. IntroducingLayout – a simple, clean application perfect for any and all of your photo collage-ing needs. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of ‘heart’ or ‘star’ shaped layouts, but it does offer up a tab to just view the pictures with ‘Faces’ on your camera roll and suggests layouts as you select your favorite images. Once you’ve chosen a set layout, you can mirror, rotate, flip, push and pull on your images – showcasing your favorite features and hiding the rest. So far, the app is only available in the Apple Store, but hopefully it’ll be rolled out to Android soon!

For those of you who haven’t played around with it, let me show you how it all goes down!

Show me some of your collage-creations!

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From the moment I flutter my eyes awake until the millisecond I drift off into dreamland, I essentially eat, breathe, drink, sip, slurp, embrace and flirt with music. And it’s not just some music, I love it all – music of all genres, shapes, sizes, styles, frequencies, tempos, colors, temperatures. Back when I was younger, I picked my high school based on my purported future basketball career – and I’ll be honest, I really had a good thing going. As an Eighth Grader, I was being recruited by a few Division II colleges. Yeah, I know – DII, but in my defense – I still had braces, didn’t have a drivers license and was far from my first kiss; but, basketball? I could do that. Well, until I couldn’t. My freshman year, I was sidelined with a stress fracture in my L5 and simultaneously discovered my obsession with music history thanks to an exceptional teacher. Sophomore year, as I optioned to leave the basketball team – I happily, and swiftly, replaced my basketball scrimmages with choir practices and reciting lines for the school musical. Looking back, it’s almost comical how life’s trajectory can change velocity in a heartbeat. Not to mention, this was right around the time when Napster came into play.

My musical taste expanded with every breath I took and every song that got stuck in my head; I’d scour the internet for unreleased masters, live versions, acoustic versions – of? Well, anything! As much as I ‘appreciate’ (and I use that term vaguely) the radio – it’s a purely commercial market that people are funneling mindless music at ten times the rate of intelligible, honest, legitimate work. So, instead, I use my hunting and pecking skills to scour the internet in search of everything that the Record Labels didn’t want me to hear. Keep in mind, this started when I was a teenager – now that I’m 30 and I’ve been collecting music for the better part of the last two decades, my iTunes library better resembles a game of minesweeper than an actual music library.

There are two basic malfunctions in my iTunes library – ‘Incomplete Information’ and ‘Missing Files’. They’re equally obnoxious but in entirely different ways, but I’d say the later is worse – because your library will literally stop playing when it can’t find your music file. Let’s tackle that first. Besides, do your really want to rename files that you could potentially be deleting? Right; didn’t think so.

Before I started this, I had 43274 songs in my music library – according to iTunes, about 210 days of music (my personal goal is to have 365 days worth…but whatever, that’s for a different time). But, thanks to all of my warning signs – literally, flags – I knew that this wasn’t the case: almost 10% of my library was actually missing or deleted.

Missing Files.

Ever wonder what that annoying ! mark was in the left hand column on iTunes? Well, if you’ve never seen it – you can probably skip this part. But if you’re like me and files are scattered throughout your machine haphazardly, this section will be your bread and butter. Each and every time your iTunes comes across one of these files, the music stops and a dialogue box pops up, asking you to locate the missing music. Sometimes, I know exactly where that Above & Beyond album is sitting, or which single by Griz I needed to link back to my library – but more often than not, I have no damn idea where the files are. The biggest annoyance? Whatever groove I was getting on has been thwarted, and I have to start fresh – and less funky. Thank goodness I found these simple steps to Music Library Liberation.

First things first, the folder up. We’re eventually going to make a hat trick of Playlists, so first let’s make a Playlist Folder to enclose them:

File > New > Playlist Folder

Then, we’re going to make two Smart Playlists and one Static Playlist. From a data doll in the flesh to the rest of you, if you’re not playing around with your Smart Playlists you’re honestly missing out! I have a playlist set to collect data every month, and yearly, for the songs I’ve ranked 4+ so I can have an ongoing ‘Best Of’ Playlist without touching a single thing. You can set filters on filters for the multitudes of metadata each file contains.

We’re going to be creating two Smart Playlists and they’re going to be working off of each other, like logic statements. The first smart playlist is going to encompass ALL of your music files. And I mean, all of them. To do this, we basically tell our playlist to find all files not made by some fake name – logically, the smart playlist places anything and everything in this folder. Make sure the live updating is on, and there aren’t any file restrictions. If you don’t feel like being creative – you can try using my folder name, unless you have some yodeling music on your computer or something…

File > New > Smart Playlist > “All Files”

The more I played around with iTunes and sought some solice online, I found an incredibly helpful hint: If you’re dragging a group of songs out of a Smart Playlist and into a regular playlist, iTunes will automatically eliminate all files it can’t locate. That said, let’s tackle the easy playlist – the Static Playlist. Think of this playlist as a bucket; a helpful, musical bucket where we’re going to be moving our files to. Label it ‘All Live Files’

File > New > Playlist > “All Live Files”

Last, but certainly not least – your second Smart Playlist. This is going to be for your ‘Dead Files’ – we’re going to set this folder up like a sieve, it’s going to collect all the crap data within the application. We want this Smart Playlist to match two rules – we want it to be in the “All Files” Smart Playlist, and we don’t want the files to be in “All Live Files”

File > New > Smart Playlist > “Dead Files”

Head into your “All Files” playlist and select everything – yep, everything (Command + N), right click – and add the files to your ‘All Live Files’ folder. This could take a few minutes, especially if you’ve got a large library, so go open a cold brew, sit back and let your Smart Playlists do the work. When you get back to your tracks, you should see a pretty folder with no warning flags – and a populated “Dead Files” folder. Go to the “Dead Files”, highlight everything – right click and scroll down to delete. Voila; a cleaned up iTunes Library!

Now, if you’re still in the mood to fill in that missing metadata – make a new Smart Playlist, set ‘Artist’ ‘is’ ‘Blank’ – or, Album ‘is Blank’. Your new folder will have all the files missing information – it’s a long, tedious road to adding it back in (trust me, I’m in the middle of it), but it’s so much easier when your playlists are seamlessly streaming.

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When I moved toLos Angeles in the Summer of 2008, I was diving headfirst into high fashion modeling with my handy, dandy HTC clutched close in my hands. Back in the day, I really didn’t think twice about having an Apple Phone simply because I couldn’t get over the idea that it was just a glorified iPod that could make phone calls (fast forward 6 years, and one could still make a similar argument). I’d ebb and flow out of photo shoots and as my eyes devoured the clothing; and I’d sit there while wondering to myself – what the hell does ‘fashion season’ mean? Do I really need to care…? And, when is my standard outfit of flip flops, cutoff shorts and a solid tank ever going to be “in”? After grumbling through internal dialogues and flipping through alternative fashion magazines a la Nylon and websites like Nasty Gal, Urban OG and Tobi – I finally had my fashion epiphany: Nothing is in; personal style is King (or, Queen if you will). Fashion seasons, though seemingly novel and a great time to ooh and aah at fringe, frill and fine fabrics that you’ll probably never want to clean in a standard washing machine. They’re great for inspiration – with bold color combinations, novel pairings, a passionate pattern affinity towards Paisley, or Plaid – but at the end of the day, what’s tried and true, and you, is the best fashion there is.

The worlds of High Fashion and High Tech don’t seem to have much in common. Sure, you can sift though you can find their wares everywhere from glossy magazine pages and blogs to towering Billboards and Mall Stores. You could still sit here and argue their inherent differences, but at the end of the day their products both possess certain elements of classic style – sleek, sexy, built to fit the human form. And they the newest varieties both come with a conditional statement that newer is obviously better; what you have is old – outdated – passe – out of style. But, is it, really?

Between social and digital media, as the American public we’re constantly and equally bombarded by the ‘Haves’ and ‘Have Nots’ of modern society. Items that are supposedly ‘Newer’, ‘Better’, ‘Faster’ either because they don’t exist in grandiose quantity, or they simply can’t be afforded. I had the luxury of helping a photographer during the LA Leg of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week back in 2008 and beyond my basic quandary of who the hell any designer besides Christian Audigier was, I found the overall upscale fashion from the designers to be as far out of my taste as it was from my price range. There were designers that were fun to ogle, but at the end of the weekend I wanted to get back to the basics of being me, and that doesn’t come with a hefty price tag.

For the past few years, Christmas has seemingly come early for loyal Apple enthusiasts. They wind lines around corners for hours, anxiously waiting to get their paws all over the ‘next best thing.’ In this case, that’s the iPhone 6. It’s now been a week since the phone has jumped off of shelves and into the pockets (…and assorted microwaves…) of loyal smart phone users around the country. I didn’t make the leap to the iPhone until this past February, so being a new convert – this is Apple’s first iPhone announcement that I’ve really been invested in. And for the first time in a long time, there are almost as many physical changes as there are internal chances to the hardware, operating system and cameras.

One thing my parents always taught me was “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and Tim Cook might’ve done good mind to that mantra. Yes, the new iPhone 6 has a faster A8 processor than it’s iPhone predecessors (the 5s with the A7, 5c with an A6), but it’s a feature that will only matter if you’re a hardcore phone gamer (which seems slightly strange, but whatever) or you use your phone to track fitness. Truth be told, the only truly outdated phone after this round of updates and upgrades is the iPhone 4S; you may as well just consider it an iPod at this point. The new 6 and 6+ might be thinner, but they’re also taller, wider and heavier; I like my phone as is – because it fits nicely in my pocket. Unless the fashion industry bends as a novelty to the market to create wider pocketed jeans that the phone won’t slip out of – I don’t think the next model (when ever the hell it comes out) will be quite as grandiose.

As far as the Cellular and Wireless capabilities are concerned – each of these acts like a ‘phone’ identically. As far as the iOS8 update – everyone can do it (Model 5) and up. Also, HTC called, and they want their ergonomics back; I swear, Apple is starting to run more and more like the Android systems I left behind months ago. The standout physical difference to me is the new Retina HD camera on the 6 and 6s – blogger Lisa Bettany took the difference one step further and took the same picture with each version of the iPhone; the results are stunning!

My bottom line – unless you’ve held this model and it truly excites you, I’d stick with what you have. There’s nothing exceptionally fabulous about the new 6 and 6s that make me want to run to the store and purchase one right now, but I’m definitely still excited that I made the switch to Apple this year; I love the functionality of the phone and have been enjoying a bug-free upgrade (though, a few friends have been randomly seeing a Spotlight search when they clicked on an app.) Hardware wise, all the iPhones from the 5 on use lightning USB cables to charge, and unless you plan on talking with your best friend for literally hours – you don’t need the extra standby time. In case you’re still undecided, I’ve got the specs in some handy dandy spreadsheets – see how the phones stack up for yourself before making the upgrade.

Spec

6+

6

5S

5C

Resolution

1920 x 1080 – HD

1134 x 750 – HD

1136 x 640

1136 x 640

Screen Size

5.5″ Diagonal

4.7″ Diagonal

4″ Diagonal

4″ Diagonal

Height

6.22″

5.44″

4.87″

4.90″

Width

3.06″

2.64″

2.31″

2.33″

Depth

.28″

.27″

.30″

.35″

Weight

6.07 oz

4.55 oz

3.95 oz

4.65 oz

Processor

A8 Chip 64bit

A8 Chip 64bit

A7 64bit

A6

Motion CoProcessor

M8

M8

M7

Wireless

Faster LTE Wireless

Faster LTE Wireless

LTE Wireless

LTE Wireless

Operating System

IOS 8

IOS 8

IOS 8

IOS 8

Colors

Silver, Gold, Space Gray

Silver, Gold, Space Gray

Silver, Gold, Space Gray

Yellow, Blue, Pink, Green, White

Talk Time

Up to 24 Hrs on 3G

Up to 14 Hrs on 3G

Up to 10 Hrs on 3G

Up to 10 Hrs on 3G

Standby Time

Up to 16 Days

Up to 10 Days

Up to 10 Days

Up to 10 Days

Internet Use

12 hrs on 3G, 12 hrs on LTE, 12 hrs on Wifi

10 hrs on 3G, 10 hrs on LTE, 11 hrs on Wifi

8 hrs on 3G, 10 hrs on LTE, 10 hrs on Wifi

8 hrs on 3G, 10 hrs on LTE, 10 hrs on Wifi

Video Playback

Up to 14 Hrs

Up to 11 Hrs

Up to 10 Hrs

Up to 10 Hrs

Audio Playback

Up to 80 Hrs

Up to 50 Hrs

Up to 40 Hrs

Up to 40 Hrs

Camera

6+

6

5S

5C

Auto Focus

Yes, With Focus Pixels

Yes, With Focus Pixels

Yes

Yes

iSight Camera

New 8MP

New 8MP

8MP

8MP

Aperture

ƒ/2.2 aperture

ƒ/2.2 aperture

ƒ/2.2 aperture

ƒ/2.4 aperture

Stabilization

Optical + Auto image stabilization

Auto image stabilization

Auto image stabilization

—

Flash

True Tone flash

True Tone flash

True Tone flash

LED flash

HDR

Auto HDR for photos

Auto HDR for photos

Auto HDR for photos

HDR for photos

Panoramic

Yes; up to 43 megapixels)

Yes; up to 43 megapixels)

Yes

Yes

Burst Capable

Burst mode

Burst mode

Burst mode

—

Also, for the record:

Size to Price (from Apple.com)

6+

6

5S

5C

8GB

–

–

–

Free

16 GB

$299

$299

$99

–

32 GB

–

–

$249

–

64 GB

$399

$299

–

–

128 GB

$499

$399

–

–

Ps. These are jokes; but…you don’t have to tell your friends that 😉

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Though I wouldn’t say I have a hard time with being wrong, I certainly enjoy being right a lot more frequently – and when it comes to technology, I’ve always felt that I’ve had a keen eye for the latest and greatest toys and gadgets. For the last five years in Los Angeles, I’ve bounced between LG and HTC Smart Phones – but have consistently run into problems with the OS restarting, and that’s in addition to my contacts being deleted (on multiple occasions). For the last two years, I’ve been a had an HTC Rezound and what I once found novel, amazing and innovative was suddenly slow, redundant and poorly integrated – especially when compared to my daily use on my former deactivated iPhone 4s that I was using as a Wirelessly enabled PDA.

The fact of the matter is that I’m a heavy duty phone user with quick paws and a curious mind, and my Droid simply wasn’t cutting it anymore for my everyday inquiries. For all the reasons and times that I defended my Android in all of it’s customizable glory, the truth is that in the five years that I’ve owned a smart phone I’ve never once decided to root my Droid; in retrospect, I did jailbreak an iPhone or two. So, when I had the chance to upgrade my phone plan early with Verizon two weeks ago I more than jumped at the chance for something different. Since then, I’ve managed to migrate from an avid Android activist to a full on iPhone enthusiast – equipped with simple screen shots, emoticons and voice commands.

To make the transition as smooth as possible, I’ve been scavenging the internet in search of the latest, greatest and most amazing tips and tricks for the 5s and, admittedly, I’ve had a blast doing it. Without further ado, here are a few of my favorite hacks!

5 Tricks + Tips for the iPhone 5s

1. Camera: Burst Mode

There are 3 ways to enter ‘Burst Mode’ – press and hold the shutter key, or either of the volume keys on your phone for a succession of snaps,saved as a burst. The phone will pick the best of the group to display, but you have to option of browsing through all of them.

2. Slide iMessages Left for Time-Stamp

For a cleaner look, the time-stamp was eliminated from the standard text message view – however, if you want to reveal what time you sent your last message, simply slide the screen to the left.

3. Enable Airdrop for Easy File Sharing

When you get to your home screen, slide up for the ‘Toggle’ bar and second from bottom you’ll see a line for ‘Airdrop’ – you can enable this for your contacts, or anyone in the room with an Apple device. As a bonus, Airdrop works exceptionally well with the Apple TV device – presenting your iPhone screen on whatever device the ATV is plugged in to.

4. Customized Alert Vibrations

Not that this was in any way necessary (IMO, at least), but with iOS7 we now have the ability to set customized text, email and alert vibrations – that way, even if your phone’s on silent you’ll be aware of important calls, reminders and meetings. The phone comes with some standard ones – like ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘S.O.S.’, and below this you have the ability to create your own: SETTINGS > SOUNDS | Select the Alert | VIBRATION | CREATE NEW VIBRATION

5. Add an Emoji Keyboard

Okay, granted this isn’t anything novel for past iPhone users – but as an Android user, I was completely amped to finally use some emoticons on Twitter, Instagram and in my text messages. As with all things iPhone, additional keyboards are easy to add. Go to the App Store to download something that strikes your fancy, then head to: SETTINGS > GENERAL > KEYBOARD > KEYBOARDS > ADD NEW KEYBOARD

Last, but not least – I leave you with my new favorite late night habit: Fun with Siri. Back in the day, when Apple updated their Desktop OS – they’d embed bits of code for the heavy duty computer users to discover that came to be known as ‘Easter Eggs‘ In case you’re not aware, Apple Easter Eggs are to adults what Candy Easter Eggs are to little kids – fun, exciting, and hidden in the most amusing locations. Unfortunately for tried and true Apple computer fanatics like myself, Steve Jobs did away with the Easter Egg back with OS 9. Thankfully, there are still engineers out in Cupertino that held onto the creative, human aspect of the job and it shows in the most amusing of ways – for example, SIRI. When I was scavenging the interwebs in search of new and awesome things to do with my 5s, I stumbled upon an amazing Reddit thread with some amazing questions for the

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It’s that time of year again! Autumn was ushered in by beautiful LA weather, Pumpkin Spice Lattes have more than taken over the coffee world and Halloween is just around the corner – but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s the time of year where our friends at Apple HQ loop in their loyal customer base about their latest and greatest products and projects. I’ve touched on this a bit in the past, but I’m an Apple girl through and through – well, minus the fact I’ve refused to cave into the iPhone madness for the last few years and love my HTC Droid to pieces – but I digress. The tech talk started at 11 EST/ 10am PST and is being hosted by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater up in San Francisco. For loyal customers running iOs4.2 you’ll be able to stream the event in multitudes of ways and if you have Safari 4 or later, the event is being live-streamed right here. If you care less about talking heads and more about talking points, one of my favorite tech sites – Gizmodo – is live-blogging the event right here.

Now, without further ado – some of the highlights from today’s press event:

Image thanks to NBC

The New OS 10.9 is called Mavericks. Unlike previous OS X’s – like Mountain Lion, Tiger, Panther, Snow Leopard – this marks the first OS X that isn’t named after a killer cat but instead after a killer wave. To boot, Mavericks marks the first OS released by Apple that is free (Yes, FREE!) for everyone to update – and it’s available starting today. This update contains about 200 changes, including but definitely not limited to these arenas – Web Browsing (Safari will show users what their social networks have been reading), Maps with a 3D Flyover view, Notifications, Power Efficiency (To quote the Senior VP Federighi: “On a 13″ Macbook you’ll get an hour longer web browsing on a single charge.”) and more.

Image thanks to Gizmodo

They also introduced a few new sibling in the iPad family. First – we have a new iPad Mini! The 16GB iPad Mini 2 finally has a retina display and hosts twice the resolution as the original with 324 pixels per inch and a resolution of 2048 x 1536 for you number ninjas out there. This makes the iPad Mini 2 a definite contender against the Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. The iPad Mini 2 is a little on the expensive side – $530 with the works (LTE/WiFi) and $400 for WiFi Only. The good news? The old iPad Mini is now only $300; and with Apple – I’ve learned to take what I can get. Next up, the iPad air. It clocks in at approximately 1lb and 9.7″, making it roughly half a pound lighter and much thinner than previous versions. The CPU inside is two times as fast as the last iPad update – which was twice as fast as the first; the final result? An iPad that’s eight times faster than the original iPad.

Apple’s Mac Pro Core Processor

Last, but certainly not least – let’s take a look at the new Mac + MacBook Pros. The Mac Pro contains that sexy beast of metal above – Intel’s Xeon E5 Processor with between four and twelve cores. The Xeon Processor holds 12GB of high performance RAM (GDDR5 if you want to get specific). As far as graphics are concerned, the Mac Pro runs with an AMD FirePro which means 4k video output. Other specs for the Mac Pro include: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, HDMI, 4 USB Ports, 6 Thunderbolt ports and 2 Ethernet Ports. Per usual, the Mac Pro will cost a pretty penny – approximately $3000, and is available starting this December. Then there’s the kid sister laptop version – the MacBook Pro. Much like the Mac Pro, the 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pros boast the latest OS, Thunderbolt ports and the 802.11ac Wi-Fi radio. The 15″ gets an Intel Pro GPU, a 256 GB Solid State Drive and a 2 Ghz Quad Core Processor with 8GB of Dynamic RAM and runs at $2000. The kid brother, the new 13′, is less than3 pounds and 3/4 of an inch thick. Inside, you’ll find a 2.4 Ghz Core i6, 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and an enhanced retina display. It runs at about $1300 and both models – the 13″ and 15″ Mac Book Pros – ship today!

What are your chances of splurging on any one of their new products?

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
― Apple Inc.